Distress, Emotional
Conditions
Brief summary
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn which aspects of distress intolerance (i.e., difficulties withstanding upsetting emotional states) are the most important for improving effective emotion regulation and associated mental health symptoms. The main questions it aims to answer are: How are willingness to feel upset and self-efficacy for withstanding distress associated with different emotion regulation strategies used in daily life? Does targeting willingness to feel upset and/or self-efficacy for withstanding distress help people use more effective emotion regulation strategies in daily life when they feel upset? Are improvements in emotion regulation strategies in daily life associated with fewer symptoms of mental health problems over time? Participants will: Answer questions about their moods, willingness to feel upset, self-efficacy for withstanding distress and emotion regulation strategies for three weeks using a cell phone app Undergo a willingness, self-efficacy, combined or psychoeducational control intervention in the lab Be prompted to use the intervention skill via the cell phone app during the second week, after the intervention Complete weekly reports of mental health symptoms
Interventions
BEHAVIORALSelf-Efficacy
Brief skills based psychotherapy session to increase perceived self-efficacy for withstanding distress, giving participants increased beliefs that they \*can\* do it.
BEHAVIORALWillingness
Brief skills based psychotherapy session to increase perceived willingness to engage with distress for withstanding distress, giving participants increased motivation to try.
BEHAVIORALPsychoeducation
Psychoeducation about the components and functions of emotion.
Sponsors
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Fluent in English * Uses Android or iPhone smartphone * Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) scores of 42 and higher * Distress Intolerance Index (DII) scores of 3 or higher
Exclusion criteria
* Work or School that does not allow consistent access to phone (or is unsafe) * No internet access for completing follow-up surveys
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| DSM Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure | Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup | symptoms of psychopathology |
| GAD-7 | Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup | Symptoms of anxiety |
| PHQ-9 | Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup | symptoms of depression |
| AUDIT | Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup | Alcohol misuse |
| Binge Eating Disorder Scale | Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup | binge eating symptoms |
| Engagement behaviors | Assessed 5x/day via ecological momentary assessment | Emotion regulation strategies reflective of engagement; these are new items developed for this study and are not from an established scale. All items will be rated from 0 (not at all) to 6 (extremely). There will be 7 items assessing labeling (I'm using emotion words to describe how I feel right now), processing (I'm reflecting on or writing about my feelings), sharing (I'm sharing how I feel with another person), physical feeling (I'm intentionally feeling my feelings in my body), curiously considering (I'm curiously considering how my feelings came about), defusion (I'm observing my feelings without getting 'stuck' in them), and importance (I'm trying to think about how this current situation maps on to what matters.) |
| Disengagement behaviors | Assessed 5x/day via ecological momentary assessment | Emotion regulation strategies reflective of disengagement, some of which were modified from a momentary experiential avoidance measure (Hershenberg et al., 2017). All items will be rated from 0 (not at all) to 6 (extremely).Items will assess distraction (Trying to distract myself from my feelings'), thought suppression (Trying to push unwanted thoughts out of my mind.), discounting (I'm telling myself I shouldn't be feeling the way I'm feeling), expressive suppression (I'm trying to control my feelings by not expressing them), procrastination (I'm intentionally putting of an unpleasant task until later), denial (I'm trying to 'turn off' the feelings that I don't want to feel), and reduce importance (Trying to think about the current situation as unimportant to me.) |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Self-Compassion Scale - Short | Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup | self-criticism and self-compassion |
| State Loss of Interest and Pleasure Scale | Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup | anhedonia |
| Rumination and Reflection Questionnaire | Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup | rumination and self-reflective tendencies |
| Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) | Baseline, weekly for three weeks and then after one month followup | life satisfaction |
Countries
United States
Contacts
Primary ContactJennifer C Veilleux, PhD
Outcome results
None listed